Canyon celebrated homecoming with a comfortable 42-19 win over Hereford on Friday night at Happy State Bank Field at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. Eagles quarterback Blake Weaver threw four touchdown passes to wide receiver Graeson Cook to highlight the Canyon attack.

“Graeson’s a three-year starter for us and a heck of a kid and a great athlete,” said Canyon head coach Blake Bryant. “I think he’s one of the top receivers in the district. And of course, Blake — any quarterback who finds someone they believe in is going to throw to him.”

Meanwhile, the Canyon defense stifled the Whitefaces for most of the game.

“Our front four played really good — Pedro Garcia, Jake Ellison at defensive end really played well, J.W. Rodriguez played super as did Tanner Patterson,” Bryant said. “We got to where we were keeping five in the box and we were still able to stop them.”

Hereford head coach Don DeLozier said he’s going to work on fundamentals with his team next week as the Whitefaces prepare for district play.

“We did some things that were decent tonight in this ballgame but we gave them too many opportunities,” DeLozier said. “We’ve got to make sure that we eliminate the giving of opportunities, the gifts that we’ve been giving away.

“And we’ve got to make sure we get better on the offensive side so we can control the ball and keep them off the field.”

Canyon set the tone on its first play from scrimmage. Weaver connected with Cook, who broke free for a 76-yard touchdown reception that put the Eagles up early. Canyon padded its lead on its next possession with a four-play, 76-yard drive that culminated with Weaver finding Cook again for a 31-yard score.

The Eagles dominated the action in the first half, but a couple of Canyon turnovers resulted in points for Hereford in the second quarter. Both giveaways were fumbles on punt returns.

The Whitefaces recovered a fumble at the Eagle 29-yard line early in the second quarter. Canyon’s defense held, forcing the Herd to settle for a 28-yard field goal from Robert Gallegos.

Minutes later, Hereford recovered another fumbled punt return, that time at the Canyon 36. Again, the Eagles kept the Whitefaces out of the end zone. Another field goal by Gallegos cut the margin to 14-6 midway through the second quarter.

Canyon answered with another touchdown drive and another score, the third Weaver-to-Cook connection of the half, a 34-yard score with 2:17 remaining before the break.

The Eagles took control with their first possession of the third quarter. A couple of personal-foul penalties on Hereford helped Canyon construct a drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown run by running back Hunter Burrell and the Eagles went up 35-6.